Bad Sound

[bigdadtp]

Immediately after the NVidia flash and at the start of the intro movie, the sound goes very peculiar- almost clipped at the start of any voice or music and then very echoey on everything- almost as if the speakers are being overdriven (but not). It's almost impossible to understand any dialogue once you get into the game and it makes it almost unplayable.
Tried the AMD processor patch to 'improve' sound timings and installed recommended latest nvidia patch with no improvement.
Turned off EAX on sound settings.

Other games seem OK and normal Windows mediaplayer/ sounds are fine.

Any thoughts?

AMD X64 4800
1 gb ram
Nvidia 7600GT
Win XP SP2
PCI stereo soundcard with latest driver


Thanks

[GFree]

Well since the audio is the problem, it would really help if you have more details about the soundcard instead of just "PCI stereo soundcard with latest driver". Then we'll know if it's known to stuff up. :)

[Tech John]

Please post what model of sound card you are using and the current driver you have installed for it. Also what Graphics drivers are you currently using?

[bigdadtp]

Card is a CMedia 8739 Gamesurround 4/6channel PCI
Driver is CMedia 5.12.1.643 MS digitally signed

I was using the Realtek onboard chip from the ASUS M2N4-SLI Mobo, but this also failed to play the game properly with exactly the same problem, so this is why I'm trying this sound card.

BIOS is Revision 0301.
Graphics driver is Nividia 6.14.11.6344 dated 17/8/2007

DX is 9c (4.09.0000.0904). On the dxdiag/ display tab I have this: 'The file nv4_disp.dll is not digitally signed...' but dxdiag passes all the display tests with no errors.

Any help appreciated.

[magoo]

One trick that sometimes works, assuming that all your stuff is working properly, go into sound in control panel and move the "hardware acceleration" slider to the left one notch, click "OK". restart the computer, then try the game.
Look at tweakguides.com
Dont worry about the nv4 message, 163.44 is a beta driver corrected just for Bioshock so it isnt WQHL listed.
You might want to give driver version 163.69 a try, but it isnt much different.
Also update the OpenAL sound drivers here:http://www.soundblaster.com/Applications/article.asp?articleID=71545&categoryID=13

[bigdadtp]

Thanks Magoo.

I've reduced the acceleration and there is no difference. As I'm not using a soundblaster, should I try the openAL drivers? (Some problems getting onto the site at the moment).

Any other suggestions?